Teahead

Godfather of Punkomix

I love Rory Hayes. I actually have mint copies of all the Bogeyman comics that I know of. I've even been thinking about getting the Teddy Bear character tattooed on my chest. I also have a horror comic anthology he did with Bill Griffith, and I almost bought an original poster from Griffith. I wish I had... now I'm even more broke than I was then.

Anyway, Fantagraphics is publishing the first collection of Rory's work, Where Demented Wented, which doesn't actually comprise a whole lot because he unfortunately died at 34; he was a speed addict. But he was a total prodigy. R. Crumb called him "a great American primitive." He was a major influence for basically all punk comics. He was underground even in the underground. And his art is truly amazing, especially for its time - the first Bogeyman was published in 1969.

There's a release party in Brooklyn on August 8th, at Desert Island with PictureBox editor Dan Nadel, Bill Griffith, Rory's brother Geoffrey, and Kim Deitch. But the book isn't being released until the 18th. It was supposed to come out last month, then this month, now next month. I pre-ordered it a long time ago and I'm still waiting myself. But I couldn't wait to talk about it. This is one of those times I wished I had moved to NYC. Oh well. If you're there (sitemeter tells me quite a few of you are) you should definitely check it out.

I have this sneaking suspicion that he's related to Leah Hayes, but I haven't been able to confirm nor disaffirm this notion. Regardless, you should check her out as well. She was in Nerve's comics issue, which was/is amazing in and of itself. Yay comics!

The Trooth Is Out There

Woah. Former astronaut and moon walker Dr. Edgar Mitchell claims that he knows extraterrestrials have contacted us and visit the earth regularly. He's calling for governments to stop hiding their information and cooperate so that we can start to deal with it. He might be the most accredited person I've ever heard of to say these kinds of things and says it in a way that really sounds plausible. He also claims that this is well-known in certain circles, and that information has been being released which suggests that there may be some kind of real disclosure soon. You can hear the full interview with him at Kerrang! Radio.

In 2004, his fellow former astronaut Gordon Cooper told CNN.com, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us." Apparently, lots of people have been calling for this, especially those formerly connected to NASA.

According to Wikipedia, Dr. Mitchell is the advisory board chairman for the Institute for Cooperation in Space, which seeks a ban on space weapons - something I'm all for, especially since one of my favorite politicans, Dennis Kucinich, introduced it to the House of Representatives - coincidentally, he claims to have seen a UFO at Shirley Maclaine's house in Washington. In fact, Maclaine herself called for the United States to release our information on the Today Show in an interview with Matt Lauer. Also on the board of the ICS was the late Arthur C. Clarke, author and inventor of geosynchronous orbit, which makes satellites possible - sadly, he died in March of this year.

Dr. Mitchell is also really interested in inner space and paranormal events not taken seriously by mainstream science. Unfortunately, a lot of people probably think this discredits him because he's into ideas like ESP - even conducting private ESP experiments while piloting Apollo 14 - but to me, this just reaffirms the notion that Dr. Mitchell is a gifted scientist whose capacity for scientific curiosity is boundless, unlike most people, and that kind of scientist is the one that really makes a difference in the world.

This is just my opinion but I happen to share it with a lot of people who are smarter than me: If you sort of understand how big the universe really is and how much we don't know about what goes on in the rest of it and also have some awareness of probability, there is no way to deny the potential for intelligent extraterrestrial life; and, given our recent astounding leaps in technology, especially wielding nuclear weaponry, there is cause for concern about what we're doing over here.

Anyway, whatever you may think, it's pretty fucking interesting.

Pyrite Radio

Poetry, Disco, Post-punk, Old Rave, New Bay Area Art Rock, Post-shoegaze; you know, like, classic shit.

C&C #21: TEAHEAD (YSI)

1. Joe Johnson // Fly Ho

2. Wire // One of Us

3. Orange Juice // Satellite City

4. Public Image Ltd. // Death Disco

5. Otis Brown // Boneless Chicken

6. Tanya Jackson // Pillow Talk

7. Green Velvet // The Stalker

8. The Adverts // One Chord Wonders

9. Late Young // Lymph

10. Should // Own Two Feet

11. Talking Heads // And She Was

12. Wire // Surgeon's Girl

13. The Velvet Underground // Sister Ray